The inspirational Kenyan entrepreneur, Tabitha Karanja, founder of Keroche Breweries, has been recognized for her achievements with the 2016 Global Inspirational Women Leadership Award. This prestigious award was presented by the Centre for Economic and Leadership Development (CELD) an organization in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) and the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women), USA.
Read moreAs part of sponsorship of this year’s Lionesses of Africa 2016 Annual Conference, GE Africa Innovation Centre, General Electric’s newly launched Innovation Centre, based in Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, and serving Sub-Saharan Africa, sponsored an Open Challenge for Women Entrepreneurs. Key qualification criteria for entrants included “a sustainable digital solution to a pressing challenge – or opportunity - ideally focusing on the sectors, and businesses, that GE SSA serves.”
Read more"Your victory is already won, when you choose to keep going on your entrepreneurial journey."
- Mireille Karera is the founder of KORA Associates, a consulting and coaching company headquartered in Dubai, U.A.E, with operations in Africa. Mireille is of Rwandan origin and recently opened the company's latest subsidiary in Rwanda. She speaks 7 languages fluently (English, French, German, Rwandan, Swahili, Burundian and Lingala) and in earlier years pursued her passion for languages which earned her a Bachelor Degree in Business & Legal Translation in Cologne, Germany.
Read more“I touched many things before I touched the thing that turned into gold.”
- Njeri Rionge is one of Africa’s leading entrepreneurs and one of the very few women pioneers in the ICT sector on the African continent. She has co-founded internet service provider Wananchi Online, Ignite Consulting, Insite Limited, Business Lounge, and Njeri Rionge Business Consulting Inc. These days Njeri describes herself as a global citizen cross-pollinating her business interests in Africa, North America and Europe. She 'telecommutes' and regularly travels between her offices in Nairobi and Toronto.
Read moreRoll up your sleeves....
"Never entertain the habit of wishing instead of being willing to roll up your sleeves and put in the hours and work. Have FAITH, it is a starting point for achieving your goals, and FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE!"
- Puleng Pooe is the founder of Lina Sarah Team in South Africa, a company with the vision and mission of partnering with Clients to assist in alleviating time spent on finding the right candidates for open vacancies. Puleng's goal and objective is to partner with organizations to increase the quality and speed of their recruitment. She supplies quality temporary and permanent placement of staff and related support services, and works closely with organizations on their succession plans, performance management and talent management processes.
Read more“If we want to have truly equitable societies, then we need to embrace equity on all levels. And that means women’s economic empowerment and the key to that is women entrepreneurs,”
- Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu is founder and Managing Director of soleRebels, the world's fastest-growing African footwear brand and the only Fair Trade-certified footwear company in the world. Growing up in a poor suburb of Addis Ababa, Bethlehem decided that there was only one way to defeat poverty – use local craftsmanship to make products that can compete in the global marketplace. She decided on footwear and today 70,000 pairs of shoes leave her factory every year. soleRebels has been expanding rapidly and today exports to no fewer than 45 countries and is targeting 50 stand alone soleRebels retail stores across the United States by 2018 and 500 worldwide by 2022.
Read more"Circumstances have made us strong. Carrying water, wood, delivering our own babies in some cases. African women get their strength through a difficult life. One day the African women will reach where they aspire to be."
- Samrawit Moges Beyene is a successful Ethiopian entrepreneur who founded Travel Ethiopia in 1994, a tour company involved in eco-tourism. Travel Ethiopia was the first company to hire women as tour guides. She went on to start Village Ethiopia in 1998, a company that operates a lodge – Bilen Lodge – in Afar providing employment to the local community. Samarawit has also started a floral business that is the first in the sector to hire disabled employees.
Read morePam Samasuwo Nyawiri, multi-award winning founder of unique handbag and accessory design company, Vanhu Vamwe, has just been recognized for her groundbreaking work by the AWA African Women Association and their 2016 prestigious African Women Awards, picking up the Creative Visionary Award.
Read moreAward-winning entrepreneur, Chinwe Ohajuruka, founder of CDS (Comprehensive Design Services) in Nigeria and the inspiration behind innovative eco house building initiatives that are positively changing thousands of lives in the country, has just beenrecognised for her work in a new global and powerful documentary series. Her Passive House Prototypes project was featured in Al Gore’s latest environmental documentary series: 24 Hours of Reality.
Read moreOne of the biggest challenges facing Africa and its citizens is access to clean affordable energy. One young entrepreneur, Nthabiseng Mosia, together with her co-founders in a social enterprise, Easy Solar, is looking to make an impactful contribution to solving this challenge in Sierra Leone, a country particularly hard-hit by access to energy issues.
Read moreBeing a woman engineer can often be challenging in Africa, and for many young aspirant women engineers, it can be a hard industry sector to break into. One enterprising woman entrepreneur is looking to change that. Puleng Pooe has founded Lina Sarah Team, a specialist recruitment and HR solutions business focused on female engineers.
Read moreAfrica needs more women innovators and change-makers, particularly when it comes to harnessing the power of technology to find solutions to key challenges. Mozambique has one such woman innovator in Gérsia Sequeira, co-founder of the Instituto de Tecnologias, Inovação e Serviços - ITIS in Maputo. She is on a mission to innovate for continuous improvement in areas such as education, e-government and entrepreneurship development.
Read moreThere is a great focus right now on socially responsible brands that not only make a statement in the world, but also make a difference. Entrepreneur Rahel Mwitula Williams and her proudly African lifestyle brand, ILAVA (which translates as IT CAN BE DONE), is passionate about making women feel empowered through fashion, whilst at the same time positively impacting the lives of others.
Read moreThere is an abundance of free information online, almost too much. Many entrepreneurs fall victim to information overload. Regardless of what business you own, you can benefit from the free or less expensive tools and technologies from the start. Author and entrepreneur, Beth Malatji, founder of Wealth Ladder Magazine, has some great tips in her new book The Bootstrapper’s Lifesaving Hacks.
Read moreWhen you decide to start your own business, there are various legalities that you will need to take into account – below is a simple checklist of factors you may need to consider.
Read moreYou know that feeling, when you are watching a sports match featuring your favourite team, and they are on a winning streak - it feels like everything is possible - leagues can be won, trophies can be lifted, coaches and players become heroes. It’s the same in the world of entrepreneurship. When a business starts to take off and it is doing well, when hard-fought contracts are won, cashflow is actually flowing, and employees feel pride in working for the business and brand, life as an entrepreneur feels good - winning feels good! Yet we all know that it takes incredible hard work, guts and determination, and bags of self belief to get to this point. Just as on the sports pitch, it’s a wonderful feeling to be on that winning streak and there is no doubt that it feels easier to solve day to day challenges when business is trending in the positive direction. The trick is to keep the momentum going when you hit the inevitable bumps in the road that will come along. Not every major sports team wins every match every time, and coaches know that a team is only as good as it’s last match. So in business the lesson is to ride with the good times and build up positive momentum that will last when times get tough.
Read moreBe innovative....
"I encourage women, especially the young women to come up with innovative products and services and deviate from engaging in "traditional" entrepreneurial opportunities."
- Helen Njoroge is co-founder of Tenders Kenya, a digital platform that provides information on the latest procurement opportunities in Kenya for women and young entrepreneurs. The government of Kenya in 2013 reserved 30% of all government tenders for women, youth and persons with disabilities. With many procurement systems online, Tenders Kenya offers a digital and cost effective and efficient channel where all entrepreneurs, and more so the youth in Kenya, can access all procurement opportunities, and not only government but also private sector opportunities.
Read more"If we support one another, we Kenyans, we Africans, we'll be able to do even bigger than what the multinationals can do."
- Tabitha Karanja is founder and CEO of Keroche Breweries. She is one of Kenya's leading entrepreneurs, a remarkable trailblazer and an example of a woman made good against all the odds. Tabitha chose to venture where none before her had dared. She took on an 87-year-old business monopoly and entered an industry with a deeply entrenched male gender stereotype. Tabitha broke the mould to become Kenya’s first home-grown beer and alcoholic drink manufacturer. Today, her company's state-of-the-art factory produces 10,000 bottles of gin and ready-to-drink vodka, as well as 15,000 bottles of beer per hour.
Read moreFollowing a call for entries through the Lioness Lean In event series, the first Lionesses of Africa Accelerator programme officially launches on 6 December in Johannesburg. 30 women entrepreneurs have been accepted onto the Accelerator Programme, which is powered by Standard Bank, in partnership with Liberty, and held at the SB Incubator in Rosebank.
Read moreThe ability to build a high potential, high growth business with a sustainable heart is one that entrepreneur, Ana Alecia Lyman, founder of Bio Óleos de Miombo and Grupo Trichilia, has in huge amounts. Her vision to create world-class products that celebrate the sustainable natural resources of Mozambique and create a much needed value chain from community to consumer, is one that is making the world sit up and take notice.
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